61. Real
I didn’t know why the hell I even turned the TV on when I got out of the shower. I wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone anything that was on. The only things on my mind were how good my Love had looked in her little sundress at the cookout earlier, and when I was gonna give in and slide between those thick thighs again. She had the type of walls that made you functionally insane. No matter how I fought it, shorty had her hooks in me.
I stretched as I walked into the kitchen, then grabbed a tumbler and my bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. I hoped the bourbon would settle my mind.
Sitting on a stool at the counter, I nursed the glass half-heartedly as I scrolled through the latest news. My phone buzzed and I frowned when I saw Prime’s name. Something was wrong. Prime wouldn’t call unless something was up.
“Real,” he said, voice tight with urgency. “We got a situation. Everly’s car was found at the end of her driveway, door wide open. I’ve been trying to ping her location and no luck.”
“What the hell?” I shot up, nearly knocking over the drink. My mind raced, piecing together scenarios none of which ended well. “Please tell me you fucking lying to me right now?”
“Nah, man. You know I don’t play with the people I love and their safety. My people and I are on the way. I need you to start the search.”
A half hour later,I paced the floor of my living room like a caged lion, worry pressing down on my chest. I was blindsided by Love’s disappearance, especially after everything that had gone down between us.
Panic clawed at my insides, and I could feel the anger bubbling beneath the surface. Yeah, I was mad at her, might even be acting an ass toward her, but I had no intention of losing her. What the hell had happened? Cursing, I threw the tumbler, watching it shatter against the wall. I felt no better.
I had already assembled a search party that would rival the Texas Rangers when my phone buzzed with a new message. I glanced down, and my breath caught in my throat. It was a picture of Everly, face looking like a storm cloud, against the backdrop of a penthouse I knew all too well.
Before I could dial the number from which the picture was sent, I had an incoming video call. I didn’t even hesitate to answer, my heartbeat thundering as Aaqil’s face filled the screen.
“Montréal,” he began, his tone casual, as if he hadn’t just pulled a stunt that was going to get him killed. “I’ve been meaning to schedule a meeting with you.”
“What the hell did you do to her?” I gritted out, my fist clenching at my side. “Where’s Everly?”
“Relax, little brother. La beauté is just fine,” Aaqil said, a smirk creeping onto his lips. “I am a resourceful man, so I created the perfect opportunity.”
“The perfect opportunity? Bitch, you bold to touch mine. I been tryna stay off yo’ damn head, but you tryna get your leaf removed off ya daddy tree, huh?”
Aaqil’s brain had an upcoming date with the pavement. I was officially done with his attention seeking ass.
“Calm down, Real. It is truly simple. You come here, you see your woman,” Aaqil coaxed.
“Why would I trust you?” I demanded, fighting against the fury swirling inside me.
“Because she is safe with me for now. I vow that on my life,” he replied.
I swallowed hard, trying not to tell him that he had forfeited that when he took her.
“But if I were you, I wouldn’t take my time. You are not the only one interested in such beautiful property,” he taunted.
“Fuck does that mean?”
“You will see. Come alone. The penthouse code has been reset and the lock changed. Buzz from the elevator and I will allow you up. Do not be a fool, Montréal Hamilton.”
Then, his weak ass disconnected. I had let Aaqil trespass too many times. Tonight, he died.
I didn’t take much time to think. It was crazy to go by myself, but what choice did I have? I opened my text app to the thread with my siblings. I set a message to send in thirty minutes. I may need your help. Aaqil has Everly . I closed with the address of the penthouse. That was enough. My brothers would come through for me, shooting first and never asking questions.
The ride to the penthouse was a blur, the music pouring from my speakers unheard as adrenaline pumped through my veins. All that mattered was getting to Everly, getting answers, and figuring out what the hell was going on.I knew what Aaqil had said, but I also knew how attracted he’d been to her and what his little follower had planned for Chennai. I didn’t trust his ass as far as I could throw him. What if this bastard was trying to kill me and steal my woman?
It seemed to take forever, but finally, the building loomed dark and quiet above me, a stark contrast to the chaotic storm brewing inside me. I stepped inside and trekked to the elevator, tension simmering.
Entering the lift, I pressed the appropriate button. He answered immediately.
“Let me the fuck up,” I ordered.
The elevator embarked on a rapid climb. Then, the doors slid open, and Aaqil and his team appeared.
I didn’t object to the two minions at the door who searched me quickly. Alone on Aaqil’s turf with Love here, I wouldn’t risk anything. But as soon as I got her away, I’d be back.
“Little brother. Welcome back to my humble abode,” this bastard greeted, spreading his arms wide like some kind of demented host.
“Stop playing with me, Aaqil. Where is she, you raggedy ass bastard?” I demanded.
He chuckled. “Bastard? No, that would be all of your mother’s children. But why the rush? First, you must meet the other contender for the hand of la beauté .”
He gestured toward the man on the couch who rose quietly.
“You know, once I found out her actual background, it was not hard to learn her story. It would seem she has no qualms about leaving broken hearts behind. Montréal Hamilton, meet Raouf bin Khalid bin Abdullah Al Aziz. He is the lovely Everly’s ex. He is here because he wants to be her present. Raouf is Saudi, but it turns out that he and I have a connection. His mother is Libyan, making him my countryman. I found myself kindly disposed toward him, willing to help him out. Snatching the woman you are so crazy about for him was so satisfying. And even in the… circumstances she currently faces, Raouf is willing to accept her back. I thought it would be so nice of me to help him.” He laughed even as my blood froze in my veins. “I thought it would be even nicer to reunite them in front of you. You’ve been so sure that I couldn’t touch you, brother. I had to show you that I could touch you where it hurts most. Trust you to make my plans difficult,” he groused. “Go get her,” he snapped at one of his men.
All sorts of shit played through my head as I waited, primarily the million ways I wanted to murder Aaqil bin Ismail al-Saleh.
A few moments later, Love walked from the back of the penthouse, followed by a guard. My first sight of her eased my breath, realigned my mind. Her face softened when she saw me, before she raced into my arms. The feel of her lush body was fucking heaven. I breathed in the scent of her hair, relief washing over me.
“I was worried about you,” I murmured, the anger that had fueled me now fighting with the comfort of holding her again.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against my chest, her voice shaky. “I should’ve never gotten out of the car like that.”
I pulled back slightly, searching her eyes. “You’re not the one who needs to apologize.”
My hands slipped around her middle, and I confirmed what I had just noticed when she walked out of that room: the slight curve of her belly, unmistakable under the fitted clothes she wore. My heart skipped a beat, and a thousand questions flooded my mind.
“Are you… are y’all okay?” I asked, my heart racing as I palmed the baby bump just beginning to show beneath her shirt.
“I’m okay, Real. Aaqil’s an idiot, but he didn’t hurt me. I cussed him out real good, too.”
Love was the cutest when she got feisty. And my time in Louisiana had shown me that my shorty could curse like a sailor.
A smile pulled at my lips. “So, Pip was finally wrong about something.”
She rolled her eyes. “Pip loves to play with words. She said you didn’t knock me up that morning, because I was already pregnant. She and Granny realized before I did.”
I couldn’t help the grin that crossed my face. Wait until I saw that little troublemaker.
Aaqil cleared his throat, and it must’ve been the first time Love looked around the room. I heard her gasp, and then her grip on me was tightening. She shook her head as her eyes widened with fear. A soundless “no” curved her lips. Raouf said nothing, but the way he stared at her—a sick mix of lust and anger pissed me the fuck off.
“It’s okay. I got you,” I whispered.
“But I have all the guns.” Aaqil smirked. “Step away from him, Everly.”
She shook her head as I held her tighter. “Fuck you, Aaqil. Ain’t nobody leaving here with her but me,” I vowed.
Aaqil made a tutting sound. “I do not know about that. I made a deal with Raouf. He is willing to take her as is, although she must be a favored mistress instead of his wife. You fucked that up for her, little brother. You should be more careful about wrapping it up,as you Americans say.”
I laughed softly. “As if I would ever let her go with this stalking ass nigga. You and he got me fucked up.”
“Oh, Raouf has the perfect plan. He quickly figured out how this situation gives him leverage. He will take her, and he will not even make her destroy the child. It will be insurance. You will live knowing that your child is under his domain. He will take them to a place where they are both his legal property.”
Rage, blinding and possessive, arced through me. I took a step toward Aaqil, only to feel Love’s hands on my arms.
“Real… baby, wait,” she pleaded.
“That will never happen. Never . I don’t let go of what is mine.”
It was my half-brother’s turn to laugh. “You have no choice. As I said, I have all the guns. If you ever attempt to steal her back or threaten Raouf’s life, he will take the child’s.”
“No!” Love objected, the sound anguished as she placed a protective hand on her belly.
“Yes,” Aaqil countered. “And he so generously offered to include me in the protection.”
My mind was working, trying to figure this out through the haze of anger Aaqil’s audacity had created. My brothers would be on their way by now—I had already felt my phone buzzing nonstop—but could they make it in time? I would need help getting her out of here safely with these odds. But there was no way I could let Raouf take her. Depending on the country, he could effectively disappear Love and our baby from the Western world forever.
“You are at a loss for words, yes?” Aaqil chuckled. “Raouf’s plan is perfect… except for one little detail.”
The man who had been unable to take his eyes off, Love suddenly frowned and gave Aaqil a confused look. Aaqil’s face hardened, and he quickly lifted his gun hand.
“You could not possibly think that I would ever allow a niece or nephew of mine to be used like that.”
Love jumped and screamed as a silenced shot ripped through Raouf’s forehead. Shockwaves rippled through me.
“Your niece or nephew?” I finally spoke. Imagine this nigga, claiming my baby.
Aaqil shrugged as his men rushed to begin the clean up.
“Just because I do not like you does not mean I will visit that dislike on your children. Though, you do not deserve such a blessing.”
“Enough, Aaqil! You’ve had your fun!”
I looked for the source of the deep voice. Nah. My eyes had to be playing tricks on me. There, emerging from the shadows in the back, was Ismail bin Hussein al-Saleh. Time seemed to freeze. I hadn’t seen him in years, had honestly thought I never would again.
Aaqil looked at his phone suddenly. “And look. Perfect timing—the rest of our guests have arrived.”
I wrenched my eyes from my sperm donor to glare at Aaqil. “We don’t need anymore of your guests. And just so you know, I’m still killing yo’ ass,” I promised.
“You will not kill your brother,”Ismail commanded as if he had any hope of telling me what to do.
I opened my mouth to tell him as much when the elevator opened again. Ghazi and Cairo were no surprise, but I tensed when I saw my sisters.
“What the fuck?” I growled.
Chennai strode toward me and intertwined her fingers with mine, a silent show of solidarity.
“ ’Atfali ,” Ismail whispered, his voice gravelly but warm, as if he were just a dad coming home from a long trip. “My children. It is good to see you all.”
Shock, anger, disbelief… multiple emotions showed on my siblings’ faces. “What are you doing here?” Cairo asked coldly, the only one of us able to contain his feelings in this moment.
“I’m out,” Ismail said simply. “Some sort of deal with the Feds.” He waved dismissively, as if it were no big deal. “Please tell me… how is Rachel?” His eyes softened at the mention of our mother.
“None of your damn business,” Ghazi said, staring defiantly.
Ismail shook his head, his face suddenly sad. “That is not true, abni .”
“Enough with the family reunion,” I interrupted, my patience long gone. “You knew about this dumb shit?”
“Yes, he reached out to Raouf to antagonize you at first. But I convinced him that… neutralizing the problem would be a good peace offering to you. She was always safe, Montréal,” Ismail reassured me. “Do you think we would hurt your lady, especially in her condition? I needed you to come. I allowed Aaqil’s plan because for her, he said, you would come, and you did. I need to talk to all of you about something important. I have a proposition?—”
“Proposition? My guy, you were just in jail with minimal contact with us for years! Fuck you and ya proposition.” Cairo spoke exactly what I was thinking. “And you went along with this shit? I thought you wanted no parts of us?” he snapped at Aaqil.
Aaqil shrugged. “It is what my… our father wants—a truce amongst his children. What he has to offer in return has much merit. For the right amount, I can even tolerate all of you.”
“Mothafucka—” I started, then stopped when Love made a little sound and gripped her stomach.
That shit scared a nigga more than anything had in a long time.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The baby moved. She’s been still. I guess she felt what I was feeling. I was scared for a minute,” she explained, a sheen of tears blurring her honey brown eyes.
Another thing Aaqil had to pay for. I needed to ask a question, though.
“Is this why you wanted to get back together? Because we don’t have to do that. I’ll ‘keep’ you for real, for the next eighteen years.”
She hesitated, her expression shifting. “No, Real. No, it’s not that. I was going to tell you. I just… I didn’t want you to see my belly and offer to take care of me just because of that. That’s why I covered the doorbell camera. I want you. I love you. I missed you so much these last few months.”
“You love me?” I repeated, needing to hear the words again.
“Yeah,” she affirmed, her gaze steady. “Like you love me. And I love how you love me out loud. I want to give us a real chance—no more rules.”
I searched her face for any sign of doubt, and all I saw was sincerity.
“We could do that,” I said nonchalantly.
She kissed her teeth. “Boy! You know you happy.”
“You in here talking about you love me with a belly full of my baby. That and after tonight… hell yeah, a nigga happy as fuck,” I admitted before squeezing her tighter.
“Simp ass,” Ghazi muttered.
“Leave him alone!” Kinny jumped to my defense.
But I wasn’t focused on either one of them. All of my attention was held by the woman in my arms.
“You right. I love the fuck out of your difficult ass. I have for a while, even when you were beating me over the head with them damn rules. You’ve been the best part of my life since you started complicating it, and now you giving me the definition of real love. You and my baby… you really stuck with a nigga,” I warned her.
She smiled, and I kissed her, letting the chaos of the past few hours melt away. For a minute, I just held her, happy to have her back in my arms, determined that she would stay there from now on.
The sound of raised voices pulled us back to reality. Ismail was insisting he had something important to say, while Chennai went in on him for his kidnapping technique.
“Talking like you think of us as a family while you doing shit that’s just not family-friendly,” she ranted.
Ismail stepped forward, his presence admittedly forceful. “You will listen to me,” he said, then relented. “Please. One hour of your time, and if you are not interested, you never have to talk to me again. But for now, I need you to think of the possibilities if we operate as a unit. And remember the other things I passed on to you. I have yet to steer you wrong.”
The room fell silent, his words settling over us.
Finally, Cairo, as the oldest of my mother’s children with Ismail, made an executive decision.
“Talk.”
Ismail did. “The Federal Government released me in part because I revealed to them the location of one hundred million dollars I… came about in my younger days.”
I scoffed. “Came about? Nigga,just say you stole it.”
He nodded once. “Fine. They know of the one hundred million dollars. They do not know about the other two hundred million I stole, a sum that my dear friends have grown to about five hundred million. I am offering each of my eight children fifty million dollars, once it is recovered. Consider it an apology for my missing your youth.”
Kinny sucked her teeth. “What’s the catch?” she asked.
Ismail sighed. “The recovery will be no easy process. That is where you and your varied skills come into play.”
And then he began to explain in earnest. Ismail spoke of opportunities, of things we had only started to imagine. I kept Love close —like a good luck charm—as he described his plans. I didn’t know what my siblings and I would choose, but whatever it was, I’d face it with my Love by my side .